The fallout from a miserable week for the Magpies will inevitably lead to some changes
Newcastle United head coach
Newcastle United head coach saw his side lose at home to Sunderland(Image: Iain Buist/Newcastle Chronicle)
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Wow, the roof has caved in on Newcastle United and Eddie Howe. The unthinkable has happened, the agony deepened. Crisis time has arrived and we have three weeks to stew in anger and embarrassment before embarking on a long road to nowhere. The season is dead. Europe just a place to spend the summer holidays.
A year after Howe and United stood on top of the world at Wembley they have combined to lose home and away derbies, sacrifice their beloved Carabao Cup beaten twice over a two legged semi-final, and been demolished by Barcelona's wrecking ball in an embarrassing Champions League exit. The repercussions will be great, the fall out enormous.
Howe is under intense crushing pressure. He bravely led from the front on the final whistle lap of dishonour but his ears must have been burning at the sound of rampant booing from the few shell shocked Geordies left dotted round a rapidly emptying stadium.
There will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth on Tyneside over the coming days. Much calling for blood letting. It feels like the glorious uninterrupted fairytale of United's rise under Howe and new ownership has run its course.
A rebuilding programme is required, the scrapping of a blueprint necessary. There will long-term be casualties, just who and how many.
Sunderland who needed the play-offs to scrape into the Premier League while United were lifting the League Cup and qualifying for the Champions League, jumped above the Miserable Mags with a victory clawed from the jaws of defeat.
And so United's snakes and ladders season of ups and downs has plummeted to a new low.
They had dominated the first half but only led through a goal gifted by Sunderland's sloppy thinking and sloppier play from a goal kick they attempted to take short.
However once again United failed to keep up the intensity, alarmingly dropped off the pace, and sacrificed oceans of green grass to a Sunderland side which couldn't believe their luck and grew in belief with every passing minute. Newcastle were second to every ball and finished second in a two-horse race.
Both Mackem goals were messy affairs with plenty of opportunity to sniff out the danger at source before the coup de grace was applied. Inevitably the winner was notched by Brian Brobbey, a huge unit of a centre-forward who bullied United's central defenders.
I had expected a much better response to our Barca bashing than this sorry sight and so had virtually every Geordie. What now? It is just as well an international break has come to allow tempers to cool and rational thinking to return though I doubt things will ever be right again before the season comes to a thankful end and allows everyone to sort out the problems with a boldness of action.
Blue-chip players will leave using the excuse of no Champions League football and others must leave. The buying must be considered and not knee-jerk in a blind panic. Must be a damned sight better than last summer.
Perhaps I, like you, need time to rinse my mouth of a bitter taste, take stock, gird my loins, and go again. We've done it many times in the past but this feels different. This has come from soaring hope.
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